Monday, January 26, 2009
Ups and Downs of Autism
So, today starts off great!! Delaney is throwing a ball back and forth with me. Someone from Rescare came and helped me apply for Medicaid. I'm beyond excited that we would qualify based on her diagnoses (and not finances) and that they would cover ABA (if we can find a therapist that takes medicaid). It's going to be a pain in the arse to apply but sounds worth it. We also get 80 hours every 6 months of respite. YAHOO! THEN, all heck broke lose. Her Speech Therapist came. Delaney just doesn't like to work with the therapists. She screamed and threw a complete fit the whole time. It was awful. She just wanted me. Then she threw another fit refusing the fish oil/vitamin mix. So, I just feel like firing all of the therapists, move to Texas, throw her in a pool and do the therapy myself. Why do we have to put these kids through suffering just to get them progress? I really struggle with it all. Oh, and then just when I'm down in the dumps, she turns her head and looks at her brother when he walks in from school. Of course, he has to say that she's never done that before and he was happy. Up and Down.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Loving the word "no"
D woke up from her nap today. I asked her if she wanted to go find her favorite toy, Dora. She quickly rapidly shook her head back and forth indicating no. So, I asked her if she wanted to go eat. She responded again shaking her head and also said "NOOOOOOOOO". YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has shaken her head back and forth before but hasn't done it in a while for me. Please, please, please keep the word "no" in your vocabulary.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Autism and Vaccines
I spent 4 months on bedrest 7 years ago with my first son. I read everything I could on autism and also on vaccines trying to find a link. I sure didn't want a kid with autism. Mainly, I just didn't understand autism. It sounded scary and if I could prevent it, I would.
Although there are some children who I do believe could definitely have autism from vaccines, I have never believed that is the main problem with vaccines. I've always thought the vaccines had to many chemicals for the immune systems of these tiny babies. There are many, many believable stories of parents whose children were jumping on the bed the day before the MMR and a shell after the MMR. How can you discount those parents? SO, I've always delayed and selectively vaccinated my kiddos. I just wanted to protect them from all of the auto-immune diseases - asthma, diabetes, etc.
And, guess what??? My youngest child, our only daughter has autism. She didn't receive a single vaccination until she was almost 7 months old. She received 2 doses of HIB and Polio (6 and 9 months). She also received 2 doses of DPaT at 12 months and 15 months. NO OTHER VACCINES! She started doing "cute" little twirls with her arms and feet when she was excited at 3 months of age. She then started rocking on all 4's when she was started to crawl. And, then she proceeded to rock sitting while there was music on. None of these led me to believe she had autism because she had great eye contact and loved watching her brothers play. Plus, she wasn't developmentally delayed. And, I found on the internet that if she rocked before 12 months then it wasn't a sign of autism. SO, I gave her the DPaT at 12 months and 15 months. That is when the fun started. The signs really started to show their ugly head around that time. She quit saying momma and dadda. She quit doing peek-a-boo. She didn't walk until 18.5 months. She has never pointed to anything and her eye contact progressively got worse. She also got the stomach flu and the "real flu" twice all within that 12-15 month time frame. SO, if anything, I believe that vaccines could worsen autism but she definitely had signs prior to receiving any vaccines. And what about those 2 lovely cases of the flu?? How did that play into everything?
Just for the record, she is still breastfed at 25 months with no end in sight. We try to eat mostly organic, all natural foods. She is my only child who was not cloth diapered (could it be the diapers? LOL). My oldest son has eosinophilic esophagitis. His symptoms started prior to his 2 months vaccinations so I doubt that it was caused by the vaccines.
All of that said, I probably won't give her any further vaccinations. There's still the fear that she could regress and I don't want to take chances. We have a wonderful pediatrician. He told me NOT to give her the flu vax because of mercury and not to give her DPaT because a "little cough won't kill her". He thought HIB and polio wouldn't be a big deal if we gave them(pretty harmless) or didn't give them (no more disease). We don't give her any other vax because I don't think any of them are necessary.
As far as autism, it's really not that bad. She has been our absolute best baby and child. She hugs and kisses her mommy all of the time. Her eye contact with me isn't all that bad. In a nutshell, it's nothing like I thought it was. I'll take her just the way she is.
More later...........
Although there are some children who I do believe could definitely have autism from vaccines, I have never believed that is the main problem with vaccines. I've always thought the vaccines had to many chemicals for the immune systems of these tiny babies. There are many, many believable stories of parents whose children were jumping on the bed the day before the MMR and a shell after the MMR. How can you discount those parents? SO, I've always delayed and selectively vaccinated my kiddos. I just wanted to protect them from all of the auto-immune diseases - asthma, diabetes, etc.
And, guess what??? My youngest child, our only daughter has autism. She didn't receive a single vaccination until she was almost 7 months old. She received 2 doses of HIB and Polio (6 and 9 months). She also received 2 doses of DPaT at 12 months and 15 months. NO OTHER VACCINES! She started doing "cute" little twirls with her arms and feet when she was excited at 3 months of age. She then started rocking on all 4's when she was started to crawl. And, then she proceeded to rock sitting while there was music on. None of these led me to believe she had autism because she had great eye contact and loved watching her brothers play. Plus, she wasn't developmentally delayed. And, I found on the internet that if she rocked before 12 months then it wasn't a sign of autism. SO, I gave her the DPaT at 12 months and 15 months. That is when the fun started. The signs really started to show their ugly head around that time. She quit saying momma and dadda. She quit doing peek-a-boo. She didn't walk until 18.5 months. She has never pointed to anything and her eye contact progressively got worse. She also got the stomach flu and the "real flu" twice all within that 12-15 month time frame. SO, if anything, I believe that vaccines could worsen autism but she definitely had signs prior to receiving any vaccines. And what about those 2 lovely cases of the flu?? How did that play into everything?
Just for the record, she is still breastfed at 25 months with no end in sight. We try to eat mostly organic, all natural foods. She is my only child who was not cloth diapered (could it be the diapers? LOL). My oldest son has eosinophilic esophagitis. His symptoms started prior to his 2 months vaccinations so I doubt that it was caused by the vaccines.
All of that said, I probably won't give her any further vaccinations. There's still the fear that she could regress and I don't want to take chances. We have a wonderful pediatrician. He told me NOT to give her the flu vax because of mercury and not to give her DPaT because a "little cough won't kill her". He thought HIB and polio wouldn't be a big deal if we gave them(pretty harmless) or didn't give them (no more disease). We don't give her any other vax because I don't think any of them are necessary.
As far as autism, it's really not that bad. She has been our absolute best baby and child. She hugs and kisses her mommy all of the time. Her eye contact with me isn't all that bad. In a nutshell, it's nothing like I thought it was. I'll take her just the way she is.
More later...........
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